Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to

imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

One of my favorite things about DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT is its pacing; if you've read DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE then you know what happens to Karou at the end. In many books the division between characters* would have been navigated inexpertly and some sort of unsatisfying reunion would take place. Laini Taylor deftly avoids that in her writing by her incredibly talented narrative pacing throughout the arc of the series, leaving this installment to explore Karou and what needs to happen in order for her to grow and accept the possibility the future brings. While I would classify this book ultimately as one that focuses on Karou, the Akiva (and other) moments were perfectly tuned to the overall octave of the story. It is a beautiful and compelling read.If you have not begun this series I highly, highly recommend it for its beautiful creativity and writing. If you read book one at some crazy point in 2011, don't worry, this installment will catch up up with all of the pertinent points and then some to fill in all of the gaps.Also, as I'm sure you've by now noticed, the titles of both books contain the same amounts of the same letters. The acronym for book one is DOBAS and book two's is DOSAB. I'm rather curious to see if book three will follow in the same footsteps.

*I'm being deliberately vague here to avoid large spoilers for both books.

@Awesome Ladies: As soon as I saw them together on my shelf I couldn't help but wonder at the similarly lettered titles. It seems I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed DOSAB, but Laini did a brilliant job of bringing me back to rediscover.

@Jenny: Ah, I'm looking forward to seeing what your thoughts are, then! I'm almost envious because you get to experience this lovely story for the first time. It's really quite captivating and so well told.